​Malaysia’s Canvas: The Blistering Saga of a Flash in the Pan Art Revolution

Malaysia’s
Canvas: The Blistering Saga of a Flash in the Pan Art Revolution

Author: James
H. Springer

Publisher: Gerak
Budaya

ISBN: 9789674880736

Year: 2018

Price: RM35.00

In February
2014, an international colony of young, freewheeling and footloose artists held
a group exhibition that would stand as a pivotal turning point for the future
of George Town, Penang. It was an exhibition destined to make the artists
household names, infamous for boldly swinging into parties and installing
challenging art onto Southeast Asian walls. It would also spell the return of
George Town to a worldwide destination, a city relegated to backwater ashes
rising to heights shared by heritage, culture, and cosmopolitanism.

In this
personal exposé, James H. Springer documents the lives and times of artists
during the period of 2010 to 2016, telling the story of George Town’s
gentrification through their own influential experiences. Through childhood
memories, artistic inspirations, fluctuating relationships and artwork – learn
how these young artists lay a new path for George Town going into unpredictable
times. During what could arguably be described as Malaysia’s most troubling
political era, Springer describes how the flourishing of art in George Town
gave its population a much needed respite from federal government tomfoolery.
In addition, George Town’s rising art scene gave Penang State a leg up in
economic prosperity, creating an unheard of level of opportunity that would
either be capitalised on or squandered.

Malaysia’s
Canvas lays bare the reality of being an artist in a developing country and the
change it can inspire, with no holds barred.

James H.
Springer is a writer and researcher. Malaysia’s Canvas is his first book. After
working as a trained Sommelier in Penang for two years, fortunately at the time
the city’s art scene started blooming, he quickly fell in love with George
Town.